


The Miracle of Male Pregnancy

by respoftw



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Fluff with Angst, M/M, Mpreg, Past-Surrogacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 17:29:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10223423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: Teyla is very upset that no one had told her that Earth males could carry children, John is worried that Teyla is going to punch him for not telling her, Rodney drops a bombshell on the team and Ronon is amused.





	

Teyla raising her eyebrow in surprise was the more refined equivalent of McKay spitting out his coffee in shock. John had only saw it happen once before, when he had told her that her necklace was the thing responsible for drawing the Wraith to them every time they stepped through the 'gate. Seeing it now made him realise that they might have dropped the ball when explaining some of Earth's more...peculiar idiosyncrasies.

"You are telling me that the males of your world can carry children?" Teyla's disbelief rang clear and loud.

John was sure that if it had been anyone other than Lorne making the claim, she would have dismissed it all as a practical joke at her expense. Not that anyone on the expedition would dare to mess with her in that way; anyone that had not been won over by her regal, composed manner had seen her wipe the floor of any competition with her bantos rods often enough to be wary. The look of betrayal she was levelling at him for not having previously made her aware of this was enough to remind John of how dangerous she was. He gulped.

"You...you didn't know that?" His attempt at nonchalance garnered a snort of amusement from Ronon who seemed to be taking the news of Lorne and Parrish's soon to be bundle of joy in his stride.

"No, I did not know that," Teyla answered benignly, "and I do wonder how such an important piece of information could have been missed. Surely it was relevant to us as members of your team to know that such a miracle was possible?"

Ronon held out his hands in surrender when John glanced pleadingly at him. "Hey," he laughed, "leave me out of this. This is between you and Teyla."

John knew that Ronon was right; knew that a big part of the reason that Teyla was so put out by this new information was because of his reaction to her own pregnancy. To say he handled that badly was like saying that Rodney quite liked coffee - a massive understatement.

He sighed heavily, pushing his half eaten lasagna to the side of his plate. "Look," he began, "just because men can get pregnant doesn't mean that they're going to. You know about DADT right?"

Teyla's mouth turned down in distaste as she nodded. "Yes, Rodney explained that particular rule to me after it was repealed as this was something else I had not been made aware of."

John could only imagine how scathing Rodney's description of that backwards piece of legislation had been. At least it made his job simpler now. "Well, before the repeal, a US soldier, a male soldier, couldn't risk becoming pregnant because it, well it's pretty damning evidence that they were - -"

"Gay, bi or pansexual," Teyla finished sweetly. "I understand, Colonel, continue."

John paused to wonder exactly what Rodney and she had been chatting about. "Right," he cleared his throat, "well, you get that it just couldn't happen. So it wasn't relevant."

Ronon shook his head as he forked the last piece of John's forgotten lasagna. "Not good enough, Sheppard," he cautioned.

"I would have to agree with Ronon," Teyla said. "Perhaps that was true for the military members of the expedition but the civilians were not held to the same rules were they?"

"Well, no," John admitted. "But come on, it's not like Rodney was gonna - -"

"It's not like I'm gonna what?" Rodney's tray clattered on to empty space of table next to John as he joined them. "I don't like it when you guys talk about me when I'm not here."

"We were speaking of the ability of Earth men to become pregnant," Teyla explained.

Rodney rolled his eyes. "And here I thought that I could escape talk of Parrish's expanding waistline by leaving the lab. You'd think nobody had ever heard of a pregnant man before."

Ronon sniggered as John face palmed and Teyla pursed her lips in frustration.

"What?" Rodney looked between them in confusion. "What did I say?"

"We had not heard," Teyla said, gesturing at herself and Ronon. "I was just explaining to the Colonel how disappointed I was not to have known such an important piece of information about those I call family."

John winced. Teyla really knew how to twist the knife.

"And how did my name come up in this conversation?" Rodney asked.

"I was just saying to Teyla that it wasn't relevant for me because of DADT and that you were with Jennifer until recently so it wasn't like you were planning on getting pregnant."

"Me?" Rodney shuddered. "God no, once was enough. I am never going through that again. Being pregnant was the worst."

Huh, it seemed as though Teyla was capable of being shocked enough that she spit her coffee out.

\---

"You were pregnant?" John choked.

"You have a child?" Teyla asked.

"You must have been fat as hell," Ronon stated.

Rodney ignored them all as he tucked in to his lasagna. When none of them joined him in returning to their food, Rodney sat back, let his cutlery clatter to the table and sighed.

"Yes, technically yes but not really, and it's called being pregnant, not fat," he answered each one of their questions in succession.

"I don't understand," Teyla frowned.

Rodney shrugged, picking up his fork and knife again just so that he had something to do with his hands. "I may have carried her but she was never mine to keep. I...uh, do you guys have the concept of surrogacy here?"

Teyla shook her head. "I do not believe I know that word."

"I have," Ronon interrupted. Rodney squirmed under Ronon's assessing gaze, not sure what was going on in the big man's head. "It was known on Sateda," Ronon continued. "Where a coupling couldn't produce a child for medical reasons, someone could act as a carrier for them. That's what it means, right?"

Teyla's eyes widened. "The gift of a child?" she marvelled. "That is a great gift indeed. You did this, Rodney? I must admit that, having carried Torren, I am not sure that I could. It is a very selfless act, I cannot imagine how hard that it must have - -"

"I got paid," Rodney cut her off before she brought up any more bad memories, already cursing himself for mentioning it. After almost twenty three years, he should have known better. "I was eighteen years old and although the US government were paying my tuition, I had lab fees, rent, utilities, the pesky need to eat. It was the farthest thing from selfless," he assured her bitterly. "Believe me."

Teyla, however, wouldn't be deterred. "But surely - -"

"Teyla," John's voice spoke out, quiet but firm. "Leave it."

Rodney could see it happen; the moment that Teyla realised just how much the topic was hurting him was clear in her eyes, her face flushed with shame and a little bit of surprise that John had noticed it first.

"Rodney, I did not mean to - -"

"It's fine," he rushed out. "I was the one who.." he trailed off momentarily before scraping his chair back. "You know, I, ah, I just remembered something I had to do in the labs. If you'll excuse me."

Rodney hightailed it out of the room without looking back.

\---

"Radek said you never went back to the labs." John noticed that Rodney didn't seem surprised to see him and took it as permission to walk into Rodney's room and settle himself on the desk that Rodney was sitting at. "Is that her?" John gestured at the smiling face of a young woman on Rodney's computer screen, her dark hair and dark eyes not enough to hide the evidence of Rodney's genes. It was obvious in the slant of her mouth and the slope of her nose. "She looks smart."

Rodney huffed. "She's not. I mean, she's not dumb but she's no...well, she's no me."

John sat silently, letting Rodney know through the lines of his body that he was willing to listen if Rodney wanted to talk.

Rodney snapped the computer closed with a sigh, hiding the smiling face from view. "She's a bank teller in Ohio. Did two years at community college and got a certificate in administration. Graduated in the middle of her class."

John was surprised at how ordinary she sounded. Rodney was many things but ordinary was never one of them. "Is that why you've never contacted her?" he asked. "Because she's --"

"She's perfect," Rodney snapped. "I didn't contact her because I have no right to. I gave them up, I signed them away. And I did the right thing. She's happy and well adjusted. She volunteers at a hostel for battered women on the weekend, she has friends and family who love her and who she loves and - and she's a good person, a kind person."

"Just like her father then." John hoped his sincerity in that assurance rang through and from the way that Rodney smiled softly instead of starting to rant went, he thought he might have succeeded. "What's her name?"

"Alexandria,"Rodney said softly.

John grinned, having heard Rodney's rants about the loss of the library at Alexandria many times over. "They let you name her," he said. "Poor kid. She's lucky she didn't end up Dorothea or Hypatia."

Rodney huffed a laugh. "She goes by Lexie," he admitted causing John to bark out a donkey bray of laughter.

"Come on," he said once he'd gotten control of himself. "I wanna see pictures of you pregnant," he teased. "I bet you looked ridiculous." He leaned over Rodney to get at his computer and got an elbow in his ribs for his trouble.

"I glowed, thank you very much," Rodney retorted. "I've been told that I have child rearing hips and wore the extra weight very well."

John could see that, imagining how Rodney would look, his belly rounded and full in front of him, his skin flushed with - -

"Oh my God," Rodney's gleeful voice broke into his thoughts. "You like it!" he accused, pointing at John. "You like the thought of me pregnant, you freak."

John felt blood rush to his cheeks and watched as Rodney's glee turned into wonder.

"You're an idiot." Rodney reached for John and pulled him close enough that John could smell the faint minty aroma of Rodney's body wash. "Were you ever gonna tell me? Or were you gonna watch while I married Jennifer without even saying anything."

John shrugged because what was there to say? That is absolutely what he would have done.

"You're such a masochist," Rodney muttered between kisses. "You know, being pregnant is awful. It's painful and excruciating and you would probably love it. Too bad you don't have the hips for it."

John placed his hands on Rodney's hips and grinned.

"Too bad you refuse to go through that again."

"I wouldn't say never," Rodney hedged, pushing closer and moaning at the feel of John's hardness pressing against him.

"That's interesting to know," John replied breathily. "Because I - -"

"John?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and kiss me."

John could do that.

\---

Eighteen months later, Dorothea Hypatia McKay-Sheppard was welcomed into the world, Dot for short. John really only had himself to blame for the name.

 

**Author's Note:**

> My writing muse has flown the coop this week so in an effort to coax it back I decided to finish this which has been languishing in my WIP folder since Christmas!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [I Love You, I Know](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11771616) by [NeverAndAlways](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverAndAlways/pseuds/NeverAndAlways)




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